


Before The End

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: About to Die, Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Trailer, Ficlet, Fix-It of Sorts, Introspection, M/M, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 14:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Tony thinks he'll die in space and sends Steve a message.AU of the trailer scene.





	Before The End

**Author's Note:**

> 3 days until the Avengers: Endgame world premiere! 
> 
> Written for the Cap-IronMan Avengers: Endgame Countdown.

Tony picked up Iron Man's heavy mask and pondered it. He shouldn't be wasting oxygen or energy, because soon they'd run out of both. Loose ends never sat well with him — and this one had left him with a gaping hole of betrayal, self-doubt, and regret. That was why he hadn't reached out to Steve after things had fallen apart.

Because he felt too much. 

Now, Tony had spent too many days wondering if Steve was even alive. He had focused on getting home, find out, regroup fight back. But now, he could watch the oxygen levels depleting at an alarming rate, and he was coming to terms with the fact that he wouldn't reach Earth. He would die in space never knowing Steve's fate.

Wasn't it a strange irony, that now he wanted nothing more than to call the stubborn Mr. Righteous and had no way of reaching him? 

He sighed heavily before switching on the in-built recorder.

"Hey Cap," he said, ignoring the pangs of thirst and hunger that were gnawing on him, to focus on getting his message out. "If you find this recording, don't feel bad about what has happened to me or between us. Part of the journey is the end. I'm drifting in space, and that should be more fun for a science guy like me, but food and water ran out four days ago. Oxygen'll run out tomorrow, and that'll be it. I know, I know I should've called sooner. Weren't we all about bad timing though? Fitting, isn't it? I was about to, actually, and then —" He stopped remembering holding the stupid flip phone in his hand when the brownstone had started to shake around him. "Thing isssssss," he started and then paused, remembered Thanos, remembered people falling into dust around him — the aliens, Quill, Strange and _Peter_ , _feared_ Steve would never get this because he was gone too. "I hope if I die, at least you're alive and know —"

 _I love you._ Regret prevented him from saying the words, so he said: "I have only one regret."

"We were better together. I was better with you."

He leaned forward to switch off the recording.

He was going to drift off soon, hoping with his last breath that somewhere on earth Steve would look up at the stars, proud and stubborn as always, and maybe spare a passing thought for Tony.

"I should have called," he muttered and let his eyes drift shut, thinking of Steve and the bitter words between them, about the flip phone and Steve's promise that he and the others would be there whenever Tony needed them. "Even though it was a terrible piece of tech..."

 _I need you now_ , he thought. _But I won't hold it against you if you can't get to me this time._


End file.
